Today the candidate of your choice will be elected as the next President of the United States of America …

or he will not.

What happens tomorrow?

Tomorrow begins a new era. The effect that the new president-elect will have on your reality depends not only on him, his energy, his thoughts, his beliefs, and his actions, but yours as well. And yours. And yours. And yours.

If you are a member of Congress, if you are a teacher, if you are a stay-at-home-mom, if you are an optometrist, if you are a missionary, if you are an investment banker, a police officer, a reiki practitioner, an ice cream store owner, an accountant, a millionaire, a man, a Christian, a senior citizen, a cancer survivor, an atheist, an adventurer, a musician, an astronaut, an artist, an EMT, a postal worker, a machinist, a Latino, a neighbor, an organizer, a dreamer, an inventor, an Irishman, a rescuer, a builder, a Jew, a chemist … if you are any one or any thing, if you breathe, then you affect the next four years of life in America.

Suppose you are happy with the election results. Will you celebrate? A passing moment of joy? Will you feel relief? Will you feel optimistic? Will you celebrate wildly? Will you focus on all the wonderful expectations you have for the future?

What if your preferred candidate loses? How will you react? Will you cry? Will you commiserate with friends? Will you feel angry? Disappointed? Will you be fearful for the future?

Take a moment to contemplate how you will feel after the election results are tallied. After you realize where your thoughts are likely to go, think about this truth:

You have the power to create the reality in America that you want.

Your power began with your vote, but it does not end there.

By now you are aware that you create your reality through your thoughts, feelings, beliefs and subsequent actions. But are you also aware that each group of people creates a collective reality based upon the dominant thoughts, feelings, beliefs and subsequent actions of each member? As this fact is true for individuals, it is also true for families, neighborhoods, towns, states, countries, and all of humanity. The thought energy of each individual is real. It has as much reality as the physical belongings around you. As these thoughts collect, with like thoughts magnetizing together with like thoughts, they create a greater energy with more potency.

In other words, if you and each person in the country view the future with a greatly positive outlook, and each person believes that it is possible to live in a prosperous, harmonious country, then it will happen regardless of who is president and regardless of which party dominates Congress or the Supreme Court.

You may feel a responsibility or a privilege in your voting rights, but your privilege merely begins with the vote you cast. The far more essential element of your privilege in directing the outcome of the next four years is what you choose to think, feel, and believe. It is far easier to continue along the pattern of previous thinking than to inspire yourself to think more empowering thoughts, and even if your views were largely positive, you can strengthen them and allow them to become even more optimistic. If your thoughts were less than buoyant, you can choose to elevate the energy of your thinking.

Your thoughts alone will not create a bright future, however. Be mindful of how you feel as well. “I feel good about life in America.” “I feel certain that this country will thrive over the next four years.” The feelings that accompany these sentences are empowering and contribute to the unfolding of an increasingly bright future.

Lastly, what you believe affects the reality around you. It is not enough to think nice thoughts or to feel optimistic. You also want to believe that the reality you want is possible. Everything is possible if you believe it is.

Here is a recap of your power:

1. Vote

2. Think powerful thoughts about the country’s future

3. Feelpositive about the direction the country will take

4. Believe that it’s possible to live in the country of your altruistic dreams

Exercise your power. Each individual’s power adds up to equal all the grains of sand on a beach. If you are wanting to prevent the beach from eroding, how big will you want the grain of sand you place there to be? Together, every American citizen has the power to prevent the erosion of the ideals of a nation and protect the qualities that each values: prosperity, truth, and freedom.

And one final note. Your president-elect is a man. He is not God and he is not the enemy. He is a human with strengths and limitations just like every human being on earth. He is doing the best he can within his level of awareness and his quest to become the president was fueled by a beautiful altruistic and optimistic view of the great America. His campaign was not fueled by greed, disgust, maliciousness, or hatred. It was fueled by love and hope.

Embrace your president-elect. Embrace the future of your country. And embrace your own power to create the future of your choosing!